Discredited HIV/AIDS origins theories

This article contains hypotheses not currently accepted by the majority of the scientific community. For the majority view within the scientific community, see History of HIV/AIDS.

Various fringe theories have arisen to speculate about purported alternative origins for the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), with claims ranging from it being due to accidental exposure to supposedly purposeful acts. Several inquiries and investigations have been carried out as a result and each of these theories consequently determined to be based on unfounded and/or false information. HIV has been shown to have evolved from or is closely related to the simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) in West Central Africa sometime in the early 20th century. HIV was not discovered until the 1980s by French scientist Luc Montagnier. Before the 1980s, HIV was an unknown deadly disease.[1]

Discredited theories

In 1987 there was some consideration given to the possibility that the "Aids epidemic may have been triggered by the mass vaccination campaign which eradicated smallpox". An article[2] in The Times suggested this, quoting an unnamed "adviser to WHO" with "I believe the smallpox vaccine theory is the explanation to the explosion of Aids". It is now thought that the smallpox vaccine causes serious complications for people who already have impaired immune systems, and the Times article described the case of a military recruit with "dormant HIV" who died within months of receiving it. But no citation was provided regarding people who did not previously have HIV. Currently HIV is considered to be a contraindication for the smallpox vaccine—both for an infected person and their sexual partners and household members.[3][4] Some conspiracy theorists propose an expanded hypothesis in which the smallpox vaccine was deliberately contaminated with HIV.[5]
In contrast, a research article was published in 2010 suggesting that it might have been the actual eradication of smallpox and the subsequent ending of the mass vaccination campaign contributed to the sudden emergence of HIV. The theory was the possibility that immunization against smallpox "might play a role in providing an individual with some degree of protection to subsequent HIV infection and/or disease progression."[6][7] Regardless of the effects of the smallpox vaccine itself, its use in practice in Africa is one of the categories of un-sterile injections that may have contributed to the spread and mutation of the immunodeficiency viruses.[8]

Hepatitis B vaccine (HBV) theory

The dermatologist Alan Cantwell, in self-published books entitled AIDS and the Doctors of Death: An Inquiry into the Origin of the AIDS Epidemic (1988) and Queer Blood: The Secret AIDS Genocide Plot (1993), said that HIV is a genetically modified organism developed by U.S. Government scientists. The virus was then introduced into the population through Hepatitis B (via the Hepatitis B vaccine) experiments performed on gay and bisexual men between 1978–1981 in major U.S. cities. Cantwell claims that these experiments were directed by Wolf Szmuness, and that there was an ongoing government cover-up of the origins of the AIDS epidemic. Similar theories have been advanced by Robert B. Strecker,[9] Matilde Krim, and Milton William Cooper.

Oral polio vaccine (OPV) theory

In the 1999 version of his OPV AIDS hypothesis, Edward Hooper proposed that early batches of the oral polio vaccine (OPV) grown in cultures of chimpanzee kidney cells, infected with a chimpanzee virus, were the original source of HIV-1 in Central Africa. A vial of the batch most strongly implicated by Hooper was found in storage in the UK, and analysis found no HIV/SIV sequences or chimpanzee cellular components, but did find traces of macaque mitochondria. Analysis of five samples of OPV in storage at the Wistar Institute, including one from a batch used in the Belgian Congo between 1958 and 1960, found no chimpanzee DNA.[10] Other molecular biology and phylogenetic studies also contradict the hypothesis, and scientific consensus regards it as disproven.[11][12][13][14] In 2004 the journal Nature described the hypothesis as "refuted".[15]

Additional theories

These theories generally attribute HIV's origin to the US government or its contractors.

Prevalence of conspiracy beliefs

"Nearly half of the 500 African Americans surveyed said that HIV ... is man-made. ... one-quarter said ... AIDS was produced in a government laboratory, and 12 [said] it was created and spread by the CIA. A slight majority said ... a cure for AIDS is being withheld from the poor. Forty-four percent said people who take the new medicines for HIV are government guinea pigs, and 15 percent said AIDS is a form of genocide ... 80 percent said they believe medical and public health agencies are working to stop the spread of AIDS in black communities." According to Phil Wilson, executive director of the Black AIDS Institute in Los Angeles, conspiracy theories are becoming a barrier to the prevention of AIDS since people start to believe that no matter what the measures they take, they can still be prone to contracting this disease. This makes them less careful when engaging in practices that put them at risk because they believe there is no point.[19]

Prominent endorsers of discredited theories

See also

References

  1. Sharp, P. M.; Bailes, E.; Chaudhuri, R. R.; Rodenburg, C. M.; Santiago, M. O.; Hahn, B. H. (2001). "The origins of acquired immune deficiency syndrome viruses: Where and when?". Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 356 (1410): 867–76. doi:10.1098/rstb.2001.0863. PMC 1088480Freely accessible. PMID 11405934.
  2. Wright, Pearce (11 May 1987). "Smallpox vaccine 'triggered Aids virus'". The Times. London.
  3. Maurer, DM; Harrington, B; Lane, JM (1 September 2003). "Smallpox Vaccine: Contraindications, Administration, and Adverse Reactions". American Family Physician. 68 (5): 889–96. PMID 13678138. Retrieved 20 June 2010.
  4. "Questions and Answers About Smallpox Contraindications and Screening". Emergency Preparedness and Response. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Retrieved 20 June 2010.
  5. Kalambuka, Angeyo (1 December 2009). "Don't Discount Conspiracy Theories on Origin of Aids". Daily Nation. Nairobi. Retrieved 20 June 2010.
  6. Weinstein, RS; Weinstein, MM; Alibek, K; Bukrinsky, MI; Brichacek, Beda (18 May 2010). "Significantly reduced CCR5-tropic HIV-1 replication in vitro in cells from subjects previously immunized with Vaccinia Virus". BMC Immunology. BioMed Central. 11 (1): 23. doi:10.1186/1471-2172-11-23. ISSN 1471-2172. PMC 2881106Freely accessible. PMID 20482754. Retrieved 20 June 2010.
  7. Connor, Steve (19 May 2010). "Smallpox vaccine 'helped fight HIV'". The Independent. London. Retrieved 20 June 2010.
  8. Marx PA, Alcabes PG, Drucker E (June 2001). "Serial human passage of simian immunodeficiency virus by unsterile injections and the emergence of epidemic human immunodeficiency virus in Africa". Philos. Trans. R. Soc. Lond., B, Biol. Sci. 356 (1410): 911–20. doi:10.1098/rstb.2001.0867. PMC 1088484Freely accessible. PMID 11405938.
  9. "The Strecker Memorandum - AIDS is a man made disease". www.youtube.com. Retrieved 27 June 2015.
  10. Sarah Ramsay 28 April 2001 "Cold water downstream from The River" The Lancet 357 (9265) p.1343 DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(00)04536-0
  11. Hillis DM (2000). "AIDS. Origins of HIV". Science. 288 (5472): 1757–1759. doi:10.1126/science.288.5472.1757. PMID 10877695.
  12. Birmingham K (2000). "Results make a monkey of OPV-AIDS theory". Nat Med. 6 (10): 1067–1067. doi:10.1038/80356. PMID 11017114.
  13. Cohen J (2001). "AIDS origins. Disputed AIDS theory dies its final death". Science. 292 (5517): 615a–615. doi:10.1126/science.292.5517.615a. PMID 11330303.
  14. Origin of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV/AIDS) Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website , Accessed 30 January 2007
  15. Worobey M, Santiago M, Keele B, Ndjango J, Joy J, Labama B, Dhed'A B, Rambaut A, Sharp P, Shaw G, Hahn B (2004). "Origin of AIDS: contaminated polio vaccine theory refuted". Nature. 428 (6985): 820–820. doi:10.1038/428820a. PMID 15103367.
  16. Andrew, Christopher; Vasili Mitrokhin (1999). The Sword and the Shield: The Mitrokhin Archive and the Secret History of the KGB. Basic Books. p. 319. ISBN 0-465-00310-9.
  17. Johanna Lutterroth: Aids-Verschwörung. Das Propaganda-Virus des KGB. Spiegel Online, 2012-6-26 (German)
  18. Carroll, Robert Todd (2003). "Illuminati". The Skeptic's Dictionary: A Collection of Strange Beliefs, Amusing Deceptions, and Dangerous Delusions. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. p. 175. ISBN 9781118045633. Retrieved January 17, 2013.
  19. Fears, Darryl. "Study: Many Blacks Cite AIDS Conspiracy." Washington Post 25 001 2005, A02. Web. 11 Apr. 2013. <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A33695-2005Jan24.html>.
  20. Knight, Peter, Conspiracy Culture: From the Kennedy Assassination to the X-files, p. 202
  21. Faris, Stephan (10 October 2004). "10 Questions: Wangari Maathai". TIME.com/CNN. Retrieved 2007-03-19.
  22. from the Green Belt Movement website- Wangari Maathai's "The Challenge of AIDS in Africa".
  23. "SA Government steps into Aids row". BBC News. September 14, 2000. Retrieved January 17, 2013.
  24. Nattrass, Nicoli (2012). The AIDS Conspiracy: Science Fights Back. New York: Columbia University Press. pp. 4, 23–27. ISBN 9780231149129. Retrieved January 17, 2013.
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